Cynical Thinking
by Marteler La Mer
Summary: My take on the thoughts that went through Re-L's mind during her first encounters with Vincent in episodes 1-3
1. Soggy Cereal

The building reeked of the outside world. I couldn't stand to be in there. The scent of all the immigrants waiting to become fellow citizens made me sick. Maybe it was because they wanted to become fellow citizens in the first place that made me want to retch. To want to live in this boring city of Romdeau confused me. This so called paradise that we are made to live in is a joke let alone a sanctuary; but that wasn't why I was here. As I walked down the grey corridor, I approached the doorway to the lunch hall of the F-G Temporary District Autoreiv Disposal Building only to find a female Autoreiv and a man in a red jumpsuit. I stayed quiet for a few seconds, watching their conversation unfold.

"Ah!" Milk spilt all over the floor as he clumsily went to pour it into his cereal bowl. What an idiot. He just stood there, staring at his bowl with a dumbfounded look, not moving from that position. Perhaps tuning out the rest of the world and keeping only to his thoughts, whatever they may be.

"However," his Entourage started, "you must meet with the person from the Intelligence Bureau when she comes in today regarding the case."

"Yes." Just another agreeable moron, as most immigrants are. They would do anything you tell them. They're so desperate to be accepted by the fellow citizens. So desperate to become a clone.

His Autoreiv continued to drabble on about new infection cases, but I was more intently focused on the expression of the man in the jumpsuit. He looked down silence. His face became slightly distorted. He looked worried or pained in some way as he gazed into his bowl of soggy cereal. I chose this as my moment to speak up.

"Stop relying so heavily on your Entourage. Entourages will always be Autoreivs and nothing more. To become a fellow citizen you need to work harder on your human relationships." He looked up and turned to face me. I felt a mixture of intrigue and repulsion as I wondered to myself what lied hidden beneath his eyelids. Could he be stronger than he's putting on? Or maybe he's exactly what he looks like. Pathetic. I pushed my idiosyncrasies to the back of my head and continued the conversation.

"Inspector Re-L." His voice sounded hesitant as he said my name. Did I look like I was going to bite his head off? Perhaps I give off that air.

"We met at the interview, right?" I couldn't remember his name. That'd probably crush him by the look of affection he was giving me. I looked to Iggy to help me, who gave me the name Vincent Law. "Vincent."

Suddenly I heard my least favorite title, "His Excellency's grand-daughter!" I turned and saw another man with a small mustache head up to me, but continued to watch Vincent in my peripheral vision. He continued to slouch like a ragdoll but kept his focus on me. At least I think he did; I couldn't tell with his eyes closed like that. But his face was expressionless; like he was lost in his own thoughts again. There was more time to observe him when we look over the infected Autoreiv, anyway.

Iggy and I stood in the hallway as I looked over my notes. He began to poke fun at Vincent's apparent obsession with me. I then heard the Chief of the Disposal Unit talking. "Vincent, sorry, I know you've been up all night, but you have to make up for your mistake." He stood there with that repressed, submissive look on his face. He was a perfect fellow citizen. Boring, conforming, and just so...dull.

* * *

People! What is wrong with you! More EP fanfics, I demand it! I just finished watching the series for, like, the fifth time and decided to get check up on some fanservice and was severely disappointed at only 84 stories. 6 years after it came out and there's only 84? Really? And there's, like, 500,000 for freakin' Naruto. Honestly, it's a disgrace to the series. I decided to try to put some new life into it. Anyway, this story was conjured up because Re-L has forever been a mystery to me. She never necessarily conveyed her thoughts in a lot of the scenes, especially in the first three episodes (which are my absolute favs), so I decided to make some up of my own.


	2. Complaining

Vincent walked over to a table with a busted Autoreiv on it. The room was dark and musty and smelled of rust. A single light lit the area that was filled with cabinets. He waved his hand over the specimen.

"Umm…This is the infected Autoreiv from last night."

"It's messed up," I said bluntly as I walked over to it. There were a few bullet holes penetrating the exterior of the Autoreiv and it looked as if it had been ripped apart.

"It's because of the outdated equipment that's issued to us Disposal Unit crews. We can't stop them from functioning unless we dismantle them," he said quietly.

"Is that a complaint," I asked cynically. How can he even think of complaining? He's an immigrant, he doesn't deserve more. He looked up at me, mortified. Like a child who just broke something very expensive. Afraid of whether or not he had upset me as if his life depended on that fact.

"Uh, no! I'm sorry," he quickly blurted out as he dug around in the Autoreiv's neck. "Here's the hippocampus file." He handed the small piece of wiring to me, his hand shaking. What is wrong with this man? Has he no backbone at all? I wonder if something happened to him to make him this way. I wonder if there's something _making_ him act this way. Enough wondering. I handed the piece over to Iggy, who began to scan it.

"They say that Autoreivs infected with the Cogito virus achieve self-awareness and can no longer be controlled by humans." I looked back at the Autoreiv sprawled out in pieces on the table. "In this city of Romdeau, where all the systems are designed in order that we may live, even the prayers of an Autoreiv who is prepared to die are unnecessary. You have the very important task of protecting the people. That's the shortest route for an immigrant to become a fellow citizen. By the way Vincent," I said as I shot him an evil glare.

He twitched a bit when I looked at him. Weird. Did I actually frighten him with it? I should probably stop toying with his emotions. He swallowed. "Y-yes?"

"I see you're still wearing that _thing_."

He looked down at the odd pendant he had around his neck. "…Yes." He sounded as if he was sad or ashamed that he was still wearing it. If that was the case then why was he? It wasn't attractive. It had some type of writing on it but there was nothing special about it that I could see. Or was there? Perhaps he was just disappointed in himself because I had noticed it.

"Things that smell of Mosk are to be thrown away," I said coldly. He grabbed it and put it inside the neck of his shirt. Like that will make a difference. "Don't bring it to your hearing." I had a feeling that he wouldn't listen to me, if he made it to the his hearing in the first place. If somebody stabbed him, would he even fight back? Is he even capable of being angry? Having any emotion at all? He remained a mystery to me; a mystery that I wouldn't need to worry about anymore.

* * *

I always had the feeling that Vincent was kind of ashamed to be wearing the pendant but at the same time couldn't bring himself to take it off. His shyness around Re-L was so frustrating at times. My boyfriend said that Vincent "needed to smack the bitch" sometimes, though that wouldn't be very Vincent-like, would it? Funny idea though (to me at least...) His shyness is what makes his character, and I love him regardless.


	3. Desperation

I walked out onto the hard platform, feeling alone but certain. "I know you're here, aren't you Vincent." This elicited no response. "I came here by myself," I said, throwing my gun to the side. "I'm also completely unarmed."

Still no response, save for a tiny girl in a pink bunny suit. She came walking around the corner of the hallway in front of me. Vincent reached out to grab her, saw me, then hid again. The girl smiled, said "hello there", then simply walked away. Frustrated, I yelled for Vincent again.

He emerged from the same corner, sullen and slouched as always. "Inspector Re-l," he said with his head hanging towards the floor. "I uh—" I smacked him in the face, knocking him off his feet. Grabbing him by the collar of his ragged jumpsuit I threw him up against the wall.

"I need to know! Why is the Security Bureau chasing you?"

"I don't know." His fake look of innocence enraged me even further than I was at this point.

"What did you see in the bathroom? Tell me," I demanded, this time more frantic. He's lying to me, he has to be. Why else would his necklace be there?

"The bathroom?"

Out of options, I lifted up his pendant to his face. "Then how do you explain this?" He looked surprised. More surprised than I had been when I first found it.

"How? Where was it..?"

"The Monster."

He stared at me for a few seconds with the same confused look on his face. "You mean…that thing..?"

"What did you see," I yelled in his face. This wasn't about proving my sanity to Grandfather and the Collective anymore. This was about figuring out the reasoning behind the corruption in Romdeau's system. This man was the key to everything. Every answer I needed was twitching in this red jumpsuit.

"What do you mean," he said as usual. My patience was wearing thin. "I was suddenly attacked in the mall, and the Security Bureau came after me! Inspector, I didn't do anything. Why is this happening to me?"

It was plain and simple. He was in the same situation I was. We're both trying to be silenced by the Security Bureau for our knowledge about the Proxy. We're only wanted because of the secrets we know. That's what this is all about; keeping secrets.

"You saw the Monster. The Proxy. You know."

Suddenly blinding lights flashed in our eyes. Iggy along with some other Autoreivs and people from the Security Bureau appeared. "Vincent Law, stay where you are and do exactly as I tell you." I grimaced at the group of so-called officials that had appeared before me. Their mere presence made me sick. I felt Vincent smack my arm away.

"You liar!"

"Vincent, I didn't call them!"

"Then who?" I felt a pang of regret. He didn't believe me and it hurt for some reason.

A loud metallic sound rang out in the area. The little girl had appeared again, this time pulling on a handle. "Outside," she said with a smile. The door to the plug vent began to open.

"Stop it," I said. My heartbeat began to quicken as a harsh wind began to blow. I felt myself being dragged towards the opening. Vincent was next to me, being pulled out of the vent as well. I caught a hold of his hand, but it was ripped away in an instant. He slid down the corridor, screaming for help. "Vincent," I yelled back to him. Iggy slid down and protected me from going any further towards the vent.

I watched, mesmerized, as he sat on the ledge hanging on to two flimsy rails. I couldn't lose him; he was my only connection to the Proxy. A million scenarios of how I could save him ran through my mind in a matter of seconds, but I could do nothing from my current position. I was useless to him right now. What could I do to help him? I wanted to so desperately. I recalled how I had looked down upon him and thought him as nothing but a hopeless, typical immigrant. In a matter of days he had become the most important thing to my existence. A fleeting idea popped into my head. "Vincent! I'll talk to my Grandfather! The Security Bureau won't be able to touch you!"

My heart skipped a beat as one of the rails he was holding on to broke, throwing him to one side. He just stood there, smiling to himself. "Don't do it," I said in a final attempt to break him down and get him to come back inside. I thought my pathetic pleas would do the trick. Instead he looked back at me with mean, uncaring eyes. They were an unnaturally beautiful green. Beautiful. A word that could never exist in this desolate wasteland we call Romdeau. He began to fall backwards. I could feel my heart beating faster as I saw less and less of him. I could feel my hope diminishing as I saw less and less of him. I could feel myself become sadder as he left.

What am I to do now without him?

* * *

If there's one thing I noticed about the series, it's that Re-L and Vincent have strange colored eyes compared to all the citizens of Romdeau. Whether this be attributed to the Proxies or not, I think it's perfect because it gives them character and distinguishes their independent (albeit two-sided) personalities from the rest of the fellow citizens. I've always wondered what Re-L was truly thinking in this scene; whether she was worried about saving her own ass or genuinely worried about Vincent as in a caring way. I always hoped it was the latter, seeing as I absolutely love both of them.


End file.
